world cup comment
CHRIS ROPER: Playing political football at the World Cup
LGBTQI+ protests are incurring the wrath of the Qatari government and its Fifa ‘soccerpuppet’ at the World Cup. But some rights, it seems, are more equal than others
Some of the competing nations at the Soccer World Cup in Qatar have spoken out about the human rights abuses of which the host nation is guilty, but we’d probably be surprised at how small that number of countries actually is. And we’d also do well to remember that what some people think of as universal human rights, others think of as attempts to destroy their culture.
This is not to suggest that exposing the lack of human rights should be constrained, but to point out the complexities that can arise. The argument that “you’re attacking my culture” shouldn’t be a “get out of human rights jail free” card, but it is interesting to see the different modalities of protest at the World Cup. ..
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